Briefly noted

Mar 10, 2009

Leaders from 67 religious and humanitarian organizations have asked President Obama to reconsider U.S. opposition to global treaties that prohibit the use and transfer of landmines and cluster munitions. “Reconsidering these two treaties—and eliminating the threat that U.S. forces might use weapons that most of the world has condemned—would greatly aid efforts to reassert our nation’s moral leadership,” the joint letter said February 10. The letter notes that Washington has supported operations to remove landmines, but said such efforts are “undermined” by nonparticipation in the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Epis copal presiding bishop Katharine Jef ferts Schori; Ronald Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action; Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services; and John H. Thomas, president of the United Church of Christ, are among the signers.